UABA News Blog - In English

This UABA Blog page provides information and commentary on issues that are relevant to the organization and its members. Although the blogs are public, comments can only be made by members. If yoiu wish to join the discussion, you are welcome to become a member.

The comments expressed on these blogs represent the opinions of the authors and not that of the UABA.

Lindsey Ann Radomski, the Scottsdale yoga instructor accused of indecent acts with boys at a bar mitzvah party, has been found not guilty on all counts.

Radomski, who was 32 in March, 2015, when the party occurred, was accused in misdemeanor counts of flashing her newly enhanced breasts to seven boys, ranging in age from 11 to 15, letting them fondle them and of administering oral sex to one of the boys. Washington Post; Verdict Video

In a speech in Arizona last night, Donald Trump laid out his vision for a new U.S. immigration policy. Having met with Mexican President Peña Nieto earlier that day, Trump returned to the United States to give his address to an enthusiastic crowd. Included at the meeting were family members of Americans who were killed by illegal immigrants who all vowed allegiance to the Presidential candidate at the end of his remarks. This was Trump’s first attempt to set out a complete outline of the immigration policies he would pursue were he elected President of the United States. Let’s take a look at his ten-point plan and how well he did.

1. Build a wall and have Mexico pay for it.Aside from the practicality of the wall and its cost, $ 8 billion according to one estimate, will the wall stop illegal immigration? Apart from flying over it, tunneling under it and bypassing around the wall, America’s Maginot line will fail in the same way the first Maginot line did. Ask French military historians about that one. Also, consider the economic impairment to trade with Mexico that the wall would create which would significantly impact the lives of millions of people living on both sides of the border. Ask economists about this.
Grade: Fail. Not a fix that will work. Yes, the lights are flashing, the bells are ringing and the gate is up. But there is no train.

2. Stop the policy of catch and release illegal immigrants coming into the country.There is no catch and release policy. George Bush Jr. abolished that one. There is catch and detain or catch and return policy now. Could the country do better on these? Yes.
Grade: Pass. Something worthy of improvement.

3. Zero tolerance for criminal aliens.This is pretty much the policy right now. Criminality is the priority in removal proceedings. Could we do better? Yes.
Grade: Pass. Something worthy of improvement.

4. Block funding for sanctuary citiesRuns right into Fourth Amendment protection from arbitrary arrest. Should law enforcement cooperate to make the law work for everyone? Yes. Are sanctuary cities about protecting illegal criminals? No. They are about police enforcement of the law based on due process. Due process is the key concern. Too controversial for a simple comment – but not exactly a brilliant innovation.
Grade: Fail for lack of sufficient analysis.

5. Cancel unconstitutional executive orders and enforce all immigration laws
Yes. But the Obama executive orders may very well be constitutional. Enforcement of immigration laws universally requires unlimited resources. We don’t have unlimited resources, so we need to priorize.
Grade: Fail for purposeful misrepresentation of facts.

6. Suspend visas to countries where adequate screening cannot occur.Assumes current immigration practice is to allow unscreened immigrants into the United States. That’s not the current practice. As for ideological screening, that is a mission impossible – nobody who is terrorist or enemy of the United States and wants to come here is going to disclose that U.S. immigration officials. Ask the Simon Wiesenthal center about that.
Grade: Fail for lack of sufficient analysis.

7. Return criminals back to their countries of citizenshipNeeds refinement but nobody disagrees with that idea. Stopping issuing visas to countries that refuse the return of their citizens is a possible way of getting over this problem.
Grade: Pass

8. Complete biometric entry-exit trackingAgreed.
Grade: Pass

9. Turn off the jobs and benefits magnetExpanding E-verify will help in this regard, particularly where employers seeking federal contracts or benefits are required to implement electronic registration of workers under E-verify.
Grade: Pass

Overall report card:
Trump gets high marks for his exuberance and for bringing the problems of immigration to the attention of the electorate and making it a priority in the Presidential election. We should be thankful for that. However, he is often simply not honest in his remarks about facts. For example he failed to admit that he talked with Mexican President Peña Nieto about whether building the wall on the Mexican border was a subject of their discussions. Another example was his recent television interview with George Stephanopoulos where he denied that Russia had invaded Crimea in Ukraine. His failure to acknowledge such obvious facts is a painful shortcoming that undermines his credibility in discussions about immigration and indeed other issues. In the absence of such open honesty, Donald Trump is on a voyage to the bottom of the sea

Andy J. Semotiuk is a U.S. and Canadian immigration lawyer with offices in New York and Toronto. He is a published author and a former UN correspondent. Learn more at My Work Visa.

U.S. investigating potential covert Russian plan to disrupt November elections

U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies are investigating what they see as a broad covert Russian operation in the United States to sow public distrust in the upcoming presidential election and in U.S. political institutions, intelligence and congressional officials said. The aim is to understand the scope and intent of the Russian campaign, which incorporates ­cyber-tools to hack systems used in the political process, enhancing Russia’s ability to spread disinformation. Washington PostДетальніше-Read More

Dr. Phillip A. Karber, of the Potomac Foundation, and LTC Joshua Thibeault, an operations research systems analyst and member of Training and Doctrine Command’s Russian New Generation Warfare Study Team, published an interesting article that gives insight into Russia’s development and implementation of a New Generation Warfare in Ukraine, in the June, 2016, issue of Army magazine,https://www.ausa.org/articles/russia%E2%80%99s-new-generation-warfare. It is important to study the development of Russia’s new weapons and tactics to keep our Army, and our allies, as well as NATO, ready to confront this threat.
There are five component elements: 1. Political Subversion- inserting “agitprop” agents that manipulate mass media through Information Operations using ethnic-linguistic class differences, etc… 2. Proxy Sanctuary – seizing key government facilities, police stations, military depots, and airports, arming and training insurgents who destroy ingress transportation infrastructure, create phony one-party referendums, cyberattacks to compromise victim communications, thereby creating “people’s republics” under Russian tutelage, 3. Intervention – deploying large scale Russian forces to engage in large scale military exercises along its border, “introduction of heavy weapons to insurgents; creation of training and logistics camps adjacent to the border; commitment of so-called volunteer combined-arms battalion tactical groups; integration of proxy troops into higher-level formations that are equipped, supported and led by Russians.”, 4. Coercive Deterrence – secret strategic force alerts, with “snap checks”, forward deployment and exercises of tactical and theater nuclear weapons, aggressive air patrolling in neighboring areas to discourage other state involvement, 5. Negotiated Manipulation – using and abusing Western-negotiated ceasefires to reset and rearm their forces while bleeding opposing army white and using fear of escalation to inhibit other nation involvement and assistance.
Dr. Karber had prepared an in-depth paper ‘”Lessons Learned” from The Russo-Ukrainian War – Personal Observations’ 6 July 2015 for a Historical Lessons Learned Workshop sponsored by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and U.S. Army Capabilities Center (ARCIC) based upon 15 separate trips to Ukraine from March, 2014, through June, 2015 (when he was wounded during an MLRS (Multiple Launch Rocket System) attack at Lebedyns’ky and had to discontinue his trips). Unfortunately never published (I have an electronic copy to share), it urged a military dialogue to observe and understand the Russian “New Generation Warfare” as it was being implemented in eastern Ukraine, the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the Minsk I and II Ceasefires, assess the current and future capabilities of the Ukrainian Army, most importantly to create and understanding and develop capabilities for U.S. and NATO forces to counter, neutralize, and defeat the Russian Warfare by gaining an insight and understanding into its Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTP’s).
I can only share a few examples of Dr. Karber and LTC Thibeault’s observations and recommendations. Electronic Warfare is the centerpiece of the Russian effort, to deny communications (there are areas in the Donbas region where no electromagnetic communications are possible), defeat Unmanned Aerial Systems (which are relied upon to a very large extent not just for reconnaissance and surveillance, but also targeting and even bombing), defeating artillery and mortars, and targeting command and control nodes. They urge our forces to go back to being proficient on analog systems, remove all unnecessary electromagnetic emitters, and “a day without radios and computers” during training missions, as well as develop organic Electronic Warfare (EW) systems. Unmanned Aerial Systems are being used in large numbers on both sides, with their limited radar cross-section and ability to appear on target with little to no warning, they have been used very effectively for immediate and mass suppression or mechanized and light units, citing one battle in August, 2014, where two Ukrainian mechanized battalions suffered mass casualties (over 30%) in minutes (together with massed artillery, rockets, top-attack munitions and thermobaric rounds). New weapons are being employed to defeat UAV’s, but need to be deployed down to company and platoon level. Our forces need to emphasize cover concealment, and deception (yes, just like the Cold War), in addition to using these new UAV defeating weapons and tactics.
Of grave and immediate note: “Russia employs a combination of dual-purpose improved conventional munitions, scatterable mines, top-attack munitions and thermobaric warheads that have catastrophic consequences when used in preplanned, massed fire strikes. The U.S. has removed all of these warheads from its inventory.” (Army article) This would require U.S., NATO, and allied development and intervention (including the repeal of Secretary of Defense Gates directive for U.S. forces to comply with the 2008 Ottawa Treaty) to reverse the sliding-back to the dark ages nature of Russian development of weapons and ammunition that a decade ago all major powers agreed was a relic of the Cold War and needed to be demilitarized and relegated to museums.
As a final example, in early August, 2014, Ukrainian Colonel Mikhail Zubrowski, a Fort Leavenworth Command and General Staff College graduate, organized his 95th Air Assault Brigade, and planned and executed the “largest and longest armored raid behind military lines in recorded military history” (Dr. Karber, Lessons Learned), modeled after JEB Stuart’s raid of the rear of McClellan’s forces during the Civil War Penninsula Campaign, by employing combined-arms company teams along parallel axes of advance, penetrating the enemy’s defenses, splitting the two People’s Republics in half, and then clearing out 200 Kilometers of the infiltration area along the southern Donbas, including relieving the beleaguered 25th Airborne Brigade, overrunning and capturing and destroying Russian tanks and artillery, and finally returning to the starting area near Sloviansk (moving and unprecedented 450 Km, mostly behind enemy lines). This demoralized the Russian and proxy forces, but relieved several trapped Ukrainian garrisons. Unfortunately, this spurred a heavy-handed counterattack by Russian Battalion Tactical Groups toward the end of August, 2014, resulting in the Battle of Ilovaisk, and creation of a new Western Front toward Mariupol (to attempt a land bridge to Crimea). The Ukrainian forces were in a large part surrounded, and massed fires decimated two mechanized battalions in a matter of minutes, giving Putin a chance to force Ukraine’s President Poroshenko to accept the first Minsk ceasefire agreement, which included the right of safe passage, which the Russian, and proxy, forces reneged on, massing fires and killing retreating Ukrainians, and capturing and torturing Prisoners of War (POW).
Thus, we have the harbinger of Russian-developed New Generation Warfare being practiced and developed in eastern Ukraine. Although the media has ignored the Russo-Ukrainian War, the military has not, and cannot. U.S. and other armies have been training and preparing Ukrainian forces to continue to fight and counter the Russian invasion. But it is up to us, both those currently serving, as well as those that are now retired as spectators, to keep our leadership sighted in to what really matters. Russia has already showed the world what it can and will do in Chechnya and Georgia, and currently Syria as well, and our country’s leadership needs to study and develop our fighting forces to counter and defeat them, and all those who want to follow them.

While the western media has been recently full of reports and analyses of Paul Manafort (now former manager of Donald Trump’s US presidential campaign) and his ties to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian intelligence, the deeper links between Ukrainian oligarchs and Washington are only beginning to see the light of day. A report in the New York Times about ties between the Clintons and international funding, including from Ukrainian oligarchs, was merely the tip of the iceberg.

Both Republicans and Democrats have been recipients of generous sums from Presidents Leonid Kuchma and Viktor Yanukovych as well as Ukrainian oligarchs seeking to ingratiate themselves with American public opinion. Some information can be found in cases where US consultants were registered with the US department of justice’s FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act), while in other cases further investigations are required. Read More

Almost every weekday between the fall of 2011 and early 2015, a Russian broker named Igor Volkov called the equities desk of Deutsche Bank’s Moscow headquarters. Volkov would speak to a sales trader—often, a young woman named Dina Maksutova—and ask her to place two trades simultaneously. In one, he would use Russian rubles to buy a blue-chip Russian stock, such as Lukoil, for a Russian company that he represented. Usually, the order was for about ten million dollars’ worth of the stock. In the second trade, Volkov—acting on behalf of a different company, which typically was registered in an offshore territory, such as the British Virgin Islands—would sell the same Russian stock, in the same quantity, in London, in exchange for dollars, pounds, or euros. Both the Russian company and the offshore company had the same owner. Deutsche Bank was helping the client to buy and sell to himself. Read More

“Handwritten ledgers show $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments designated for Mr. Manafort from (Viktor) Yanukovych’s pro-Russian political party from 2007 to 2012, according to Ukraine’s newly formed National Anti-Corruption Bureau. Investigators assert that the disbursements were part of an illegal off-the-books system whose recipients also included election officials,” Read Entire Article

During his television interview with George Stephanopoulos on July 31, 2016, Donald Trump unabashedly denied Russian military presence on Ukrainian territory. All Americans of every ethnicity and political affiliation should be appalled by such reckless comments. Trump has displayed his inherent inability to observe and comprehend the reality of the historical events as they occur before his very eyes. There is no reasonable doubt that Russia has -- in full view of the entire world -- illegally annexed Crimea and it is Russian military and mercenaries who are killing Ukrainian soldiers and civilians daily on Ukrainian soil. It was the Russian military that shot down MH17 and caused one million Ukrainians to flee to safety! Is Trump so politically blind that he cannot see this obvious reality?

During the interview, Trump also candidly admitted that it was “his people” who removed from the GOP platform the grant of lethal military assistance to Ukraine so that Ukraine could defend itself. He cautiously implied that he was not directly involved in these actions by “his people”. This raises the question as to which of “his people” is in charge of his foreign-policy. To whom did he outsource decisions on such critical geopolitical foreign policy matters as military assistance to Ukraine? And to whom will he outsource his foreign-policy decisions if he should become president?

Donald Trump has also flippantly suggested that as president, he would consider recognizing the illegal invasion and unlawful annexation of Crimea by Russia and would lift sanctions. Such a statement flagrantly and recklessly ignores the elementary principle of international law that a country’s borders cannot and should not be changed by the use of armies. Since the cataclysmic events of World War II, the nations of the world have established basic principles of international law and behavior that are to be adhered to by the governments of all nations so as to prevent future conflagrations on a global scale. The UN Charter, the Helsinki Final Act [the charter document of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe] and the various organic documents of the European Union, have had as their linchpin the principle of territorial integrity and security and the inviolability of borders of independent states. Mr. Trump does not seem to fathom that the mere suggestion that as president, he would contemplate the recognition of Russia’s illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory by armed force [in obvious violation of international law] critically undermines the very foundation that has prevented a major war on the European Continent. Nor does he seem to comprehend that his offhand and irresponsible statements on foreign policy put into serious question - in minds of our allies - America’s longstanding leadership and future resolve to support the rule of law in the international arena.

The issue before us is not whether we support or oppose either political party. This crucial question is about the future of the United States. The issue is simply whether the next president of the United States will have the political foresight to comprehend the geo-political events occurring in the world and to take such steps as may be necessary to protect the United States of America. Regrettably, Donald Trump’s myopic and distorted geo-political vision of the world - as displayed during his interview – does not engender any confidence whatsoever in his ability to be commander-in-chief of the United States of America.

August 1, 2016

The opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author

Myroslaw Smorodsky, Esq.

Communications Director of the Ukrainian American Bar Association (UABA)

20 Jul 2016 9:53 PM |
Anonymous

Twenty-five days ago, the eight Justices of the Supreme Court issued a one-sentence order which indicated that they were deadlocked four to four on the validity of the Obama administration’s deferred-action policy, which would allow undocumented immigrants who are the parents of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents to apply to remain in the country without fear of deportation and work here legally. Because two lower courts had blocked the administration from implementing the policy before it could go into effect, it looked like the ruling could be the end of the administration’s immediate attempt to revive the policy prior to the end of all the litigation. SCOTUS. Read More

20 Jul 2016 9:28 PM |
Anonymous

A prominent radio and television journalist in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, was killed in a car bombing on Wednesday, officials said, in one of the highest-profile assassinations of a reporter in the country in years. The journalist, Pavel Sheremet, 44, a Belarussian citizen who had worked for Russian state television before moving to Ukraine to host a morning radio news program five years ago, died when the car he was driving exploded near Kiev’s government quarter. NYT. Read More